1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is methods and apparatus for integration of capacitors into vias of printed circuit boards.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
One of the areas that has seen considerable development is PCB design, particularly as PCB bandwidths have advanced well into the gigahertz region. As electronic bandwidths expand, the impedances inherent in the conductive pathways on the PCBs themselves become relevant. PCB designs use capacitors formed in packages that have various parasitic inductance values based on their geometries and the technology utilized. Many various capacitor designs have been introduced to try to reduce the capacitor's lead lengths and structure to reduce inductance such as low inductance capacitor arrays (‘LICAs’), inter-digitated capacitors (‘IDTs’), reverse geometry capacitors, and other designs also. The interest in improved capacitor design on PCBs persists because parasitic capacitor inductance reduces electrical coupling and decoupling effectiveness as switching frequencies of signals increase.